Our retirement to Thailand begins in Chiang Mai and has us moving to Hua Hin on the Gulf of Thailand.

About Us

We are a married couple who retired and moved to Thailand in 2014. You are welcome to join us and our travel monkeys Sun Wukong and Malcolm Jr. on our adventures! We hope you enjoy the trip as much as we do.

Friday, April 1, 2016

Hobart, Tasmania and Mt. Fields National Park... Yes, we saw a Tasmanian Devil!

March 12, 2016
Hobart Tasmania

After four rocky days and nights at sea most of the passengers were happy to be in Hobart. We love sea days and don't mind the rough seas and find it helps us sleep like babies. But, we were excited to be in Hobart because we booked a tour of Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary. They rescue injured and orphaned animals from road accidents, rehabilitate them and then they find a farmer with a lot of land and release them back into the wild. At least, the ones they can. Some of the animals are not able to go back and from what we researched and saw, they are doing their best to take good care of them.

It did, at times, feel like a zoo because the birds are in cages for their own protection and I wished they had a larger place to call home. There are about 80 wild kangaroos that roam the area and they really didn't give two figs if you were touching them or not. They would eat chow out of your hand and were very docile.

Port of Hobart

Hobart has road kill every 2 miles or so. The driver of our van apologized for picking us up a little late. When she arrived at the car rental they always use to pick up the van, the people that rented it the day before drove it back in the middle of the night and left it.........with a dead kangaroo on the hood. So they had to clean it up before we could use it. Luckily we were not there to see the process. Our driver was so used to road kill that she didn't think twice about swerving around them without warning to those of us that could not see what was coming. All in all, it was a fun day.

Ready, Set....GO!

Dahling....Don't you just adore my new manicure?

They love to have their chest scratched

This is Fred. Fred is 100 years old and has a letter from the Queen of England to prove it!

We saw the famous Tasmanian Devil which we learned is endangered because 95% of them have a disease that can not be cured. They also become road kill because their eyesight is so poor they hunt for dead food with their nose and they get run over. Whatever they eat, they are able to eat everything but the skull because they can't get their mouth around it, but they do eat bones and all.

This little guy is about the size of a pug dog. He came out of his den, ran around sniffing the air.

He was smelling to see if there was anything dead to eat. He sniffed right at us and when he realized we were not dead he got really angry and growled loudly!

Once that mouth is closed he looks kind of cute

Emu

A very pretty goose

Koalas are not indigenous to New Zealand, but Australia. They had one that the handler would take a picture near.......No Touching because they are mean when woken up. They sleep 20 hours a day.

Wombats are also on the list of high road kill. We saw two 6 months old baby wombats that were rescued from their mothers pouch when she was run over. They need to be fed every two hours for two years when they then start to turn against their mother and move away from home. This woman has volunteered at the sanctuary for 20 years and is now mother to the two babies. For two years she takes them everywhere she goes. Such dedication.

Blue Tongued Lizard

This sweetheart was not happy until I scratched her head

Mt. Fields National Park

Our friend Melanie with Sun and Malcolm Jr.

Mr. Hat loving his waterfalls

On the way back to the ship our driver took us to see the Tardis between two houses

Richmond Bridge was build by convicts in 1823 and finished two years later. It is the oldest bridge still in use in Australia.